Summary

These data provide information on the relationship between
arrestee drug tests and future criminality once other risk factors,
such as prior criminal history, are accounted for. Also explored is
whether the association between drug test results and future offending
varies depending upon the attributes of individual offenders. The
dataset contains information drawn from the Pretrial Services Agency
(PSA) in Washington, DC, and the National Institute of Justice's Drug
Use Forecasting (DUF) program. Data are available from each source for
1989 and 1990 with subsequent arrest data provided by PSA through
August 1991. The 1989-1990 data supplied by PSA contain information on
criminal history and drug test results taken at the time of arrest.
Data provided from the DUF program include drug test results from a
sample of persons arrested as well as information obtained from
arrestee interviews on items such as family and work status. The
combined data contain the arrestees' demographic characteristics,
arrest and charge information, prior criminal history, and subsequent
offending. Drugs tested for include cocaine, opiates, methadone, PCP,
amphetamines, barbiturates, marijuana, methaqualone, Darvon, and
Valium. In addition, self-reported information regarding an
individual's use of and dependency on these drugs is supplied.
Demographic information includes age, sex, income, and employment
status. Due to changes in the DUF measurement instrument from 1989 to
1990, the variables contained in the two data files are not completely
identical.

Geographic Coverage

Time Period(s)

1989 -- 1991

Date of Collection

1989 -- 1991

Data Collection Notes

The variables listed in the codebook are not in the
same order as they appear in the data collection instruments. Also,
there are more variables in the dataset than are indicated in the data
collection instruments. The data collection instruments are available
only in hardcopy form upon request from ICPSR.

Study Purpose

The researchers conducted this study to examine
the relationship between arrestee drug tests and future criminality
once other risk factors, such as prior criminal history, are accounted
for. Also explored is whether the association between drug test
results and future offending varies depending upon the attributes of
individual offenders.

Study Design

This dataset contains information drawn from the
Pretrial Services Agency (PSA) in Washington, DC, and the National
Institute of Justice's Drug Use Forecasting (DUF) program. Data are
available from each source for 1989 and 1990 with subsequent arrest
data provided by PSA through August 1991. DUF arrestees were matched
with their PSA records using a common identifier.

Universe

Merged data for 1989 and 1990 from the Pretrial Services
Agency (PSA) and the National Institute of Justice's Drug Use
Forecasting (DUF) Program, with additional arrest data from PSA
through August 1991.

Unit(s) of Observation

Individual arrestees.

Data Source

records of the Pretrial Services Agency (PSA) in
Washington, DC, and the National Institute of Justice's Drug Use
Forecasting (DUF) Program

Data Type(s)

survey data

Description of Variables

The data supplied by PSA contain information on
criminal history and drug test results taken at the time of arrest.
Data provided from the DUF program also include drug test results from
a sample of persons arrested as well as information obtained from
arrestee interviews on items such as family and work status. The
combined data contain the arrestees' demographic characteristics,
arrest and charge information, prior criminal history, and subsequent
offending. Drugs tested for include cocaine, opiates, methadone, PCP,
amphetamines, barbiturates, marijuana, methaqualone, Darvon, and
Valium. Due to changes in the DUF measurement instrument from 1989 to
1990, the variables contained in the two data files are not completely
identical.

Response Rates

Presence of Common Scales

Original Release Date

Version Date

Version History

2006-01-12 All files were removed from dataset 6 and flagged as study-level files, so that they will accompany all downloads.

2006-01-12 All files were removed from dataset 5 and flagged as study-level files, so that they will accompany all downloads.

1994-10-19 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

Standardized missing values.

Notes

The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.

The citation of this study may have changed due to the new version control system that has been implemented.

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